Rising Stars: Meet John Sproul of Salt Lake City

VoyageUtah, October 22, 2025

Today we’d like to introduce you to John Sproul.

Hi John, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I was born in and spent the first part of my life in the suburbs of Los Angeles. The creative backdrop of my childhood included my great-uncle, Eric Larsen, one of the original 9 animators at Disney who worked on Thumper (one of the main characters in the 1941 film Bambi), and my father’s family, who filled my world with music. I entered art school at the University of Utah in 1990 and graduated in 1993 with a BFA in Painting & Drawing.

In 1997, I moved to Los Angeles, and over the next seven years presented five solo exhibitions, and participated in 25 national group shows, eventually supporting myself full-time through my art. As the U.S. economy declined from the Afghanistan War art sales declined.

In 2004, I returned to Utah to raise my family. Salt Lake City offered a more affordable and manageable way of life, with strong schools for my children and inexpensive studio space for my work. This also provided the chance to embrace a slower, more contemplative life, an ideal environment for making art.

To provide financial stability for my family I launched an e-commerce business in 2004. After settling into Salt Lake City, I sought to engage with the local art community and began to organize pop-up exhibitions to bring artists and audiences together. Salt Lake City has strong support for the performing arts; however the visual arts lacked a sustainable support system, leaving the scene fragmented and disconnected. Even so, I believed it was possible to help build something stronger and more cohesive and stepped back slightly from my own art career to take on a more active role as an advocate for the local arts community. In 2006, I joined the Young Benefactors Council at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, who used their membership fees to acquire a new work of contemporary art for the museum’s collection each year. In 2006 I joined the board of the Benefactors Council and served as chair from 2012 to 2013. When the museum shifted its focus from growing the collection to funding its programming, I moved on.

Many of the artists in Salt Lake City felt isolated, with little sense of community. In response, I co-founded The Art Group in 2007 as a space for connection and conversation about the arts. The group initially consisted of just five members who met occasionally. Seeking deeper engagement, I stepped into the role of director in 2008, believing that bringing together all parts of the art community would foster more well-rounded and meaningful discussions. I established regular monthly meetings, and expanded membership to include directors, curators, and patrons. Since 2007 The Art Group has continued to meet, remaining one of the few sources in the region where members of the art community can find genuine connection and community. Many of the relationships formed through The Art Group have gone on to strengthen the community, leading to meaningful collaborations and new initiatives.

In 2009, I launched the Foster Art Program to educate people about contemporary art and its significance. I believe the most powerful way to foster understanding was for people to learn through direct experience, and live with original works of art. Through the program, patrons hosted a work of art in their home for 3–6 months, then shared their experiences with the artist, me, and the Program. The program grew organically through referrals from current patrons, and Participants were welcomed to repeat the program. Over its two-year run, many artists sold work through the program, and several participants became committed collectors of contemporary art.

in 2010 I founded Nox Contemporary Gallery—a project space free from commercial constraints and dedicated to exhibiting underrepresented disciplines and artists. While seeking artists for the Foster Art Program in local galleries and arts groups, I realized that some of the strongest artists in the community were not being exhibited because their work didn’t align with market demands. The gallery operated from 2010–2013, and again from 2015–2022.

From 2010-11, I founded and ran the Utah Contemporary Art Think Tank, recognizing that local art institutions were operating in isolation with little coordination or shared vision for advancing the art community. UCATT brought together the region’s leading arts professionals to collaborate and exchange ideas. I served on the board of Southwest Contemporary Art Magazine from 2023–2024, advising on the activities of artists in Utah.

For the past 30 years, I have used the human body as a lens to explore identity and experience, seeking a deeper understanding and acceptance of both the world around me and myself.

I have had 27 solo exhibitions and participated in 120 group exhibitions internationally. Notable solo shows include the CICA Museum in South Korea, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Granary Art Center (UT), Brand Art Center (CA), and Kimball Art Center (UT) and group exhibitions at the J. Paul Getty Museum (CA), Utah Museum of Fine Arts, The Painting Center (NY), Bipolar Projects (Spain), Galerie Metanoia (Paris), Kunstwerk Carlshütte (Germany), Hudson Valley Museum of Art (NY), Imagoars Center for Visual Arts (Venice), and the Sienna Art Institute (Italy).

I currently have a solo exhibition on view at the Utah Valley Museum of Art (UT) through October 18, 2025, and will participate in a two-person exhibition at the Fitton Center for the Creative Arts (OH) from February to March 2026.

I began attending artist residencies in early 2023, starting with the Vermont Studio Center. Later that year, I took part in a residency at Buinho Projects in Portugal, followed by the La Macina di San Cresci residency in Chianti, Italy, in spring 2024. In February 2025, I attended The Crit Lab at Edgewood Farm Residency on Cape Cod. I just participate in the Château d’Orquevaux Artist Residency in Orquevaux, France, in September 2025.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I feel that fear is always an obstacle in ones life, feelings of not being enough, fear of rejection, and of failure have been challenges for me which I have tried to overcome through trying to make positives out of the negative. For example, artists receive a lot of rejection letters so I have committed to creating the largest collection of rejection letters I can – every rejection that comes adds to the success of my collection. I have also gone through therapy to help heal from trauma and remove barriers. One of these barriers was social anxiety, which I have been able to overcome through intensive therapy.

Right now the challenge is having a healthy art career far from any major art hub and I am currently working through that, exploring possibilities in the hopes of being able to continue to live in this beautiful place while at the same time having a thriving art career that I need for fulfillment.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I create art to articulate emotional states that I am unable to access directly. Making paintings, drawings and monoprints I use family, friends, and people I encounter at the dinner table, hiking trails, concerts, museums, and the subway. The work looks at how we share these spaces, expressing feelings of fear, anxiety, self-doubt, loneliness and resilience I see in myself and in those around me as we experience the erosion of connection to community, loved ones and ourselves. It is a mirror to our modern disconnection populated by selfies, likes, and algorithms, slowly unraveling the myth of how it is to be seen in this age.

In the work, figures are in groups, held in a place away from the others, trapped in isolation forever unable to connect or touch one another. Locked into this, even when looking, the figures fail to see one another. Acidic, abraded, and charged colors encapsulate each figure in a psychological space of quiet longingness.

The process of making art informs the way I live. The ritual of artmaking helps me to dismantle the protective barriers I built to survive in the social systems around me. Through this journey, I discover and embrace the power of connection, honesty, and generosity.

This article was posted to VoyageUtah, on October 22, 2025